Kiwi-British soprano Catherine Hooper graduated with distinction from the Royal College of Music, where she was the Jessie Sumner Scholar, taught by Rosa Mannion, Caroline Dowdle, and Bryan Evans. She was a 2023 OperaUpClose Associate Artist and has recently covered Senta in their production of The Flying Dutchman, as well as performing the role of Woman in their touring production of for soprano and harp, We Two Were Lovers  – The Sea and I. She is also an Opera Prelude Young Artist and a former SongEasel Young Artist. In 2022, Catherine was a member of the Glyndebourne Chorus, performing in productions of Ethel Smythe's The Wreckers, Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias, and others. At the RCM, she covered the Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte) with the RCM Opera Studio and performed extracts from various roles in opera scenes, including Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), and Alcina.

 

During her undergraduate degree at the University of St Andrews, Catherine was heavily involved in the musical life of the university and town and graduated with the Cedric Thorpe-Davie Prize for contributions to music. She sang regularly with Byre Opera in St Andrews, including as Vixen Sharp-Ears (The Cunning Little Vixen) and Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw). During her postgraduate degree at Cambridge, Catherine sang Frasquita (Carmen) with the Cambridge University Opera Society.

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Catherine has sung widely in concert and is particularly interested in performing music by female composers. She is a founding member of the 97 Ensemble, with whom she has recently performed Errollyn Wallen's song cycle Are You Worried About the Rising Cost of Funerals? in venues including the Royal Albert Hall. She commissioned and performed two new song cycles by Rebecca Nisco and Jasmine Morris for the RCM's inaugural diversity festival in 2021, and in 2018, she premiered Emily Doolittle's Conversation for soprano and chamber orchestra, funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, later touring this work to Orkney with the St Andrews New Music Ensemble. Catherine has also been a soloist for a number of major religious and concert works, including Fauré's Requiem, Handel's Messiah, St John Passion (Bach), Petite messe solennelle (Rossini), Mass in D Minor (Dvořák), and Rejoice in the Lamb (Britten). Catherine has been generously supported by Help Musicians, the Open Music Foundation, the Mario Lanza Educational Foundation and the Kathleen Trust.